ILLITERACY IS DANGEROUS

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Introduction

Language is a means of communication. It may
be used audibly or graphically. This means, for
human beings, the only species on the planet to
have the capability of language, it may be
spoken or written. Many animals can make
noises. These noises probably convey simple
messages but no animal sounds, however complex,
can be reasonably considered to be
concept-containing or idea-transmitting speech
as are human utterances. No animal makes marks
that could be considered to be writing. It is
language that makes us unique and
all-powerful.

Humans do not have the capability of
language naturally or instinctively. It is a
learned skill. How well one acquires this skill
determines the standard of living to which one
may aspire. With just an ability in the use of
language it is possible to achieve outstanding
material success. With all other skills except
in the use of language one can be an abject
failure.

If you are not profoundly illiterate but
would like to improve your competence in the
English language then you may like to advance
to some of the other tabs on this site. A
better understanding of grammar may increase
your ability to use the language effectively.
This could well enhance you career prospects or
improve your school/high school/college
results. The rest of this page and this site
may interest or inspire you. If you are helping
a friend overcome the disability of illiteracy
read on to see how you can best be of
assistance.

As powerful as language is it is not
perfect. There are many languages. Proficiency
in one does not confer an understanding of
another. Some languages are dead, some dying,
others have a spoken form but no written
system, others exist only in a textual form and
in some cases the written form bears no
relationship to the spoken word. There is a
fine difference between a dead language and and
extinct one. We have no knowledge of the
language of extinct peoples such as
Neanderthals or even whether or not they
possessed such a skill. Perhaps the lack of
this facility contributed to their
disappearance. If they were literate then their
language is now truly extinct as are they. Some
languages now exist only in a written format as
impressions in clay or carved in stone.
Speakers of such languages have long since died
out. It is unlikely that we will ever know of
the colloquial forms or "slang" expressions of
their everyday use. Other languages have been
superceded or replaced. This is the case with
many native American languages which have been
overtaken by English, Portuguese, Spanish or
French. The old Coptic language of the Middle
East has been replaced by Arabic. Still other
languages have fallen into common disuse but
are retained for ritual, legal, scientific or
ecclesiastical purposes. Latin, Coptic and
Sanskrit are examples of such languages.
Chinese is unusual in that it has no phonetic
written form. Although speakers of the many
dialects in use in China are not able
to understand each other's speech, the written
form of the language is accessible to all who
are fully literate.

There are just over 7000 languages in use in
the world today. It is expected that in a
little over fifty years the world's dominant
languages will be English, Chinese and Spanish.
Fortunately some people have an aptitude for
learning languages other than their native
tongue. Those of us who are competent in only
one language can access others via translations
by such linguists. Some of them are so
competent that they are able to translate at
the same time as others are speaking. This is
much like a musician who can sight read a score
and play it at the same time. Without such
highly skilled translators such fora as the
United Nations would be far more inefficient
and much slower in operation.

Languages survive for different reasons.
Chinese is likely to be a prominent language in
the future because of the large number of
people who will be speakers of its now
predominantly taught form, Mandarin. About a
quarter of the world's population already speak
Chinese. Spanish has spread over a large area
because of the colonial activities of Spain
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
and it is very accepting of slight variations
in form and accent. Mexican, Chilean, the
Spanish of the Philippines and the Caribbean and
that of metropolitan Spain are a bit like the
allotropic forms of, say, carbon which is the
chemical element forming, coal, graphite and
diamonds. They are different but identifiably
the same. English also spread throughout the
world owing to colonisation but it is also the
most flexible of languages. It is possible in
English to get things very wrong in the
grammar, spelling, punctuation and
pronunciation and yet still be understood. An
example of this is the title of this site and
for this introduction this, indeed, "enough
said".